There were high expectations from Besharam at the box office. The Ranbir Kapoor starrer which also had Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor coming together for the first time, should have turned out to be a winner. But looking at the five day collections of about Rs 47.69 crore, the film seems to have fallen short of expectations.

An impressive opening

Besharam which released on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, saw a record breaking opening of Rs 21.56 crore. But according to Taran Adarsh, the collections slipped to Rs.7.13 crore on Thursday, Rs.5.68 cr on Friday, Rs.5.94 cr on Saturday and Rs.7.50 cr on Sunday. The audience had accepted the adult comedy Grand Masti, but they seemed to have rejected Kapoor’s antics. According to Adarsh, the international collections for Besharam were A$14,646 in Australia, NZ$ 6,537 in New Zealand and £58,494 in U.K on the opening day.

Content matters

“The cost of the film was around Rs 80-85 crore and there were huge expectations keeping in mind the reputation of the principal actors, but the dip on the second day, although being a working day was substantial. People have rejected it because of the toilet humour, no story no good music and only one star to carry the film,” says trade analyst Amod Mehra.

Trade analyst Komal Nahta conceded with Mehra that the film’s collections were way below expectations because of the weak content. “After seeing its performance over five days, there is no way the film will pick up. Getting the three Kapoors together did not work at all,” stated Nahta.

The single screen audience has also rejected the film outright according to Manoj Desai, Executive Director, G7 theater, Mumbai. “The film is a complete washout and the exhibitors are suffering. The occupancy has been around 45 per cent after the opening day. But the film has an advantage because there is no big release till Boss which releases on October 16,” he said.

Exhibitors of multiplex theaters share the same grouse. “We were expecting good business from Besharam and had allotted 95 per cent shows to the film. Besharam will do below average business as the theaters are almost empty. There has been no good word-of-mouth publicity from the audience either and the critics have trashed the film. Till Boss releases on Wednesday, there is no big release,” said a representative of a multiplex chain.

According to Adarsh, while films like Grand Masti in its fourth week has earned surplus of Rs 100 cr nett, The Lunchbox, and Phata Poster Nikhla Hero currently in their third week have earned Rs 18.80 cr and Rs 36.50 cr respectively. These films are currently relegated to one or two shows in multiplexes.

Satellite rights

The satellite rights of Besharam were bought by Zee network. Jayantilal Gada, CMD Pen India agency for Zee network said that he could not disclose the figure, but added that there is an exit clause in the contract linked to the film’s performance. “But we will take a call after 30 days,” said Gada.

Foreign affairs

Even the Hollywood releases, the American crime drama Runner Runner and Diana, did not get a very good response from the audience. The occupancy in the first week for Diana was 20-25 percent, while for Runner Runner it was even less. But Prisoners, which is in its second week has an occupancy of 50 per cent, while Rush is doing excellent business with 85 per cent occupancy in its third week pan India.

Arrival of Boss

There’s not much hype created around War Chhod Na Yaar and Baat Bann Gayi which release on October 11. However, there is Akshay Kumar’s Boss which releases on Eid day, October 16. “There’s a reasonable amount of curiosity around Boss,” said Nahta. Mehra on the other hand is non-commital. “If Akshay manages to entertain with Boss, then the film could be an average hit because Akshay’s films generally have a big budget (around 90 crore).”

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